Technorati

August 2011

August 31, 2011

When it is dry, we water our gardens and yards. In places like the Congo and other African countries, they do not grow garden during the dry season.

Girls are too busy getting water for cooking and drinking. They do not have enough time to get water for agricultural needs. So people are malnourished and malnutrition is rampant. The weak, children and older people, become vulnerable many diseases and die.

For the first time, farmers in the rural villages of Bessassi and Dunkassa in Benin are able to grow fruits and vegetables all year round. With help from the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a non-profit, solar drip irrigation has made it possible.

Prior to the introduction of the new innovative solar technology, during the dry season the land was so parched that little could grow on its arid soils, leading to widespread malnutrition in the community. This all changed with the introduction of a community solar-powered drip irrigation system, which pumps water for food crops when rainfall is scarce.

August 20, 2011

There is a great opportunity for solar entrepreneurs in Africa and India. Solar energy can be the oil industry in the developing world. This developing world will never have a western world type electrical-grid.

But they have a need for electricity for business, development, health, and education. Without electricity, the developing countries like Congo will remain in poverty forever.

Having seen well-intentioned but unsuccessful attempts to bring alternative energy to the developing world, several NGO founders suggest a more collaborative approach.

Solar power has taken root — not in the U.S. where it supplies but 1 percent of the power generated only from renewable sources — but in energy-deprived villages of the developing world.

Because costs for electricity in the U.S. are already low, unlike in rural India and Africa, the incentive to turn over to solar is lower for American households. But in poor areas around the world, some communities have skipped an entire generation of coal-powered electricity.

Despite the attractiveness of solar cells and solar concentrators lighting up and heating poor villages, solar brings its own problems. If not implemented right, a technology touted as clean and green can become an unnecessary burden for technologically unsophisticated communities. But the size of the need, and of the market, has led some groups — having learned from earlier initiatives — to push on in bringing solar to undeveloped areas.

August 01, 2011

Starving children in Congo is common. But it should not be. Lack of water for agricultural needs and fighting are the two major causes. Congo imports most of its food items.
Will an agricultural framework help?

"Seventy percent of the Congolese population depends on agriculture. No other sector contributes more to the gross national product. However, in Congo farming is not yet perceived as a fully-fledged job."

"The lack of a cohesive agriculture policy is costing the country tons of money. Yearly, 640,000 tons of food have to be imported from abroad to feed the Congolese population."